[thunderbrick]

The NeverEnding Story...

Been remarried for 11 years, and the new(er) administration has all but torn down the house and rebuilt it in her image.  Now it's time to redo the deck.

Currently have the usual CCA deck using 2x6 decking.  Considering Trex, Timbertech, Tigerwood, and of course treated pine again.   Property is heavily wooded and in summer the deck gets just a few hours of direct sun.

Am familiar with the different composite boards but am worried about staining and mold, as well as slippery surfaces.
I've seen some heavy roll-on coatings to use on wood, but don't know which is the better approach.  will be doing all the work myself.

Suggestions?

[avta]

I had a Trex deck for some years and had problems with deterioration of the material and it was quite hot under foot. I currently have a redwood deck which is nice but requires maintenance as you know. You might consider one of the Brazilian hardwoods such as ipe'. I saw a boardwalk made of it in NJ and it looked very nice and I'm sure will last a long time. I think it's a bit harder to work with but you can get the details by looking online. If I were redoing my deck I would chose that.

[JohnR]

Suggestions?

Can you give her a few days vacation somewhere, paint it while she's gone, and just pretend it's all new?

[thunderbrick]

No need to give her a vacation, JohnR, she's a traveling consultant who only comes home every few weeks.  And she wouldn't fall for it.

I'm all about structural integrity and low maintenance and she's all about Sheng Fooey/appearance.  My plan is to alter the substructure in one weekend, redo the decking in the evenings, and THEN do the railing. 

I forgot about the composite material being hot underfoot.....

[zybar]

I had a Trex deck for some years and had problems with deterioration of the material and it was quite hot under foot. I currently have a redwood deck which is nice but requires maintenance as you know. You might consider one of the Brazilian hardwoods such as ipe'. I saw a boardwalk made of it in NJ and it looked very nice and I'm sure will last a long time. I think it's a bit harder to work with but you can get the details by looking online. If I were redoing my deck I would chose that.

Ipe is a very hard and beautiful wood and will make a deck that will last a very long time.

However, it is quite expensive.

Less expensive, but equally nice looking is mahogany.

In both cases,you will need yearly maintainance to keep it protected and looking its best.

The newer composite materials are significantly better than 3-5 years ago in terms of fading, heat retention, and mold.  They also aren't cheap.

Bottom line...how much do you want to spend and how willing are you to do the required work each year?

Those answers should drive your choice.

George

[thunderbrick]

George, cost is an issue of course, and while I don't want a deck that looks better than the house, I don't want to do it on the cheap either.

If I do the deck boards now, and the railing bit-by-bit, I may be able to handle the cost.  I might even put a sloping cover underneath to keep the patio below dry.    When hail storms threaten that's where we put one of the cars.

I am intrigued by that heavy roll-on material designed to cover treated wood.  I also have a power washer.

[thunderbrick]

http://www.lowes.com/pd_458354-90-287329___#BVRRWidgetID

This is what caught our eye at Lowes, but reviews are TERRIBLE!

[JohnR]

No need to give her a vacation, JohnR, she's a traveling consultant who only comes home every few weeks.  And she wouldn't fall for it.

I'm all about structural integrity and low maintenance and she's all about Sheng Fooey/appearance.  My plan is to alter the substructure in one weekend, redo the decking in the evenings, and THEN do the railing. 

I forgot about the composite material being hot underfoot.....

I'm just being a smartarse - around here it's pretty much automatic, you redo the joists in H3 treated pine and the boards in hardwood, Merbau if you want value or an Australian hardwood if you're fancy. I'm surprised that you would have CCA decking at all.

[zybar]

George, cost is an issue of course, and while I don't want a deck that looks better than the house, I don't want to do it on the cheap either.

If I do the deck boards now, and the railing bit-by-bit, I may be able to handle the cost.  I might even put a sloping cover underneath to keep the patio below dry.    When hail storms threaten that's where we put one of the cars.

I am intrigued by that heavy roll-on material designed to cover treated wood.  I also have a power washer.

By heavy roll on material...do you mean the stuff that's supposed to make old decks new?

If so, stay the hell away from it.  I know two people who tried it and it was a nightmare.  Tons of similar horror stories online.

BTW, if the current deck is fine structurally and size wise, a really good power wash and restaining will make it look and feel like new.  Before we sold my last house, the realtor and my friends said we needed to tear the deck down and replace it, or it would hurt our asking price.  After powerwashing and restaining, it looked brand new and the eventual buyers loved how it looked.

George

[Atlplasma]

I have Ipe on two decks and like it very much. A more cost-effective alternative might be thermally modified lumber (http://theworkbench.com/thermally.modified.php).

[Phil A]

I had Trex on my (2-level) deck of my old VA house for 17 years with no issues.  The railing was pressure treated and about a year before I moved I replaced the rail capping, which was badly worn, with Trex.  I never noticed it hotter to the touch than the pressure treated stuff.  However that being said, after the deck my property was a downhill slope to common ground and after a few years the trees on the slope grew so that during the hotter months it had lots of shade during the day (I did have to wash away some mold every so often due to that). I pulled up a picture from Google Earth of the back of my old place from the road behind it and you can see the fence and the gate and how thick the trees are.  So I guess it depends on where one puts it.

[mcgsxr]

I used to have a cedar deck and attempted to use Restore (one of the roll on deck paint/thick covering options).  I found that did not help that much, but my cedar may have been too far gone.

We had Trex installed about 2 years ago.  We used a light color for the majority of the deck (no heat underfoot at all), and did a border with darker (yes, that does get warm in direct sun).

I had a bit of mold this Spring, but Simple Green, a brush and a hose - 30 minutes later it is perfect again.

I do find it slippery in the winter, but hey snow and ice will do that to most decking surfaces.
Love ipe - I built a step out of it for my shed - super tough, never need to stain etc.

I would bet that ipe will be more than Trex.

Here is a thread that outlined the whole project back in the summer of 2014.

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=125259.40

Here is a pic of top of the deck done, but some of the other work still underway.  The link shows the final products later on.

[twitch54]

By heavy roll on material...do you mean the stuff that's supposed to make old decks new?

If so, stay the hell away from it.  I know two people who tried it and it was a nightmare.  Tons of similar horror stories online.

BTW, if the current deck is fine structurally and size wise, a really good power wash and restaining will make it look and feel like new.  Before we sold my last house, the realtor and my friends said we needed to tear the deck down and replace it, or it would hurt our asking price.  After powerwashing and restaining, it looked brand new and the eventual buyers loved how it looked.

George

i concur with George, I just recently redid the deck area by my pool and stayed with pressure treated southern pine (5/4x6). My overall deck surface is huge, 500+ sq ft so synthetic decking was out of the $$ ballpark

[thunderbrick]

I just bought a good power washer and I agree it can make a deck look great, but the original deck builder was an idiot so there are things I want to change, starting with the substructure.  Major joists serve as dirt traps, I don't think the deck is square, stairs need support, shitty job of laying down the deck boards and there's no flashing at the wall.

I may even stain all the new structural wood before I install it.  I'm weird like that....

[Folsom]

Power washing can literally eat away the wood at the level needed to remove old "stain" sometimes. I hate doing that work... I think Ipe would pay for itself if you don't have to do much to it, especially "staining" with that stupid stuff that peels.

[rajacat]

I would go with ipe. Initially, its more expensive but its more durable, beautiful and requires less maintenance than most other materials. I used stainless trim head screws which were a pita but did the job. If I did it again, I'd go with treated flat head deck screws, countersink and plug. All cuts should be treated with sealing wax and once finished, a coat of sealer should be applied. Ipe doesn't require regular maintenance coats of sealer so you save money and hassle. It holds up well to power washing. Its incredibly durable. I've dropped hammers, mini mauls, crowbars on it with no damage. Its used for rub rails on commercial fishing boats.

[mcgsxr]

Agree that ipe is excellent.  It will EAT your tools though, the stuff is truly hard.

I found that Trex was cheaper, and my wife liked it.

I agree that the substructure is critical.  Our project started out as a "reskinning" but when I saw the condition of the joists (and factored their cost vs the cost of the whole project) it became a full redo.  Glad we did.

[Bizarroterl]

FWIW I have a outside bench I redid in ipe about 10 years ago.  It gets full sun a couple hours a day.  Within a year it had faded from the original color.  Zero maintenance over those 10 years.  It still looks like it did 9 years ago.  Solid and no splinters. 

I'm a firm believer in buying quality instead of redoing something every few years.

[thunderbrick]

I'm a firm believer in buying quality instead of redoing something every few years.

Thanks!  I try to go that way whenever I can.  Plus, I'm 65, and while I can still do (and enjoy) construction work, who knows what the future will hold?

What was your substructure, CCA?

[gregfisk]

FWIW I have a outside bench I redid in ipe about 10 years ago.  It gets full sun a couple hours a day.  Within a year it had faded from the original color.  Zero maintenance over those 10 years.  It still looks like it did 9 years ago.  Solid and no splinters. 

I'm a firm believer in buying quality instead of redoing something every few years.

This input fits with what I've seen with IPE, it's really durable and really hard, it's also hard on the blades. It does fade to a very light color so if you don't like that color you're back to staining it on a regular basis.

Trex type materials are much better these days but still get hot under foot and still can get slick, although not like the old stuff.

I did our deck on puget sound with treated 2x6 lumber and used galvanized rail posts with stainless cable and turnbuckles. Also used stainless flat head star screws. My concern was durability because of the salt water. Not the look for everyone but it did turn out really nice. And it's holding up really well. I'm guessing it will fade some day but after 3 years it still looks new.